To be clear, that's not to say that people shouldn't engage at all or contribute information/data to social networks -- but, rather, to be proactive about taking control of one's online data -- appropriately marshalling what one provides and building upon it, while still keeping private that data which should be kept private.

How funny that story is. :) It's true. Generally, the ones who were too privacy conscious at the beginning of the social network era turned into the first ones to have a Foursquare account and broadcast their location.

I tend to agree, Susan. One example: When my dad first joined Facebook, he lectured my sister and me endlessly about how dangerous the site is and how it can fuel crime and break-ins (which it can, especially if you're not careful about what you share and with whom you share it). Fast forward a few years, and now my once-privacy-conscious dad is the first one to check us into a restaurant, etc, when we go out to dinner. (We have also helped him with his privacy settings, which probably assuaged some of his fears.)

"How often do people use settings like these to remove their info -- and if rarely, are people getting more used to being tracked online? Will this be a nonissue in the future?"

It's pretty likely that this will be a nonissue in the future. If you see data, and behaviour from the younger generations they are much less concerned about sharing information online.

Data collection is becoming so common that at some point most people will not worry about it anymore. It's not only information, it's location, seach history, and vistually everything we do online is captured in one way, or another.

Being a writer and legal consultant in the tech sector, and surrounding myself with tech news every day, it's interesting to me to compare my own experiences and ways of thinking with that of others. In my world, OF COURSE you change your settings so the minimum amount of data is retained -- and displayed to others, OF COURSE you restrict cookies, etc., etc..

But then I talk to my friends and family who live in the real world with the rest of the non-techies, and they just don't think about it that much.

Even keeping yourself from logging in may not protect you. I have to clean Google spyware "cookies" off of my machine all the time just from visiting the site and doing Web searches, and checking out YouTube videos.

I'd switch entirely to one of Google's competitors, but Google's search engine is still far and away the best IMHO.

Ha, that's certainly one way to look at it. I do wonder, though: How often do people use settings like these to remove their info -- and if rarely, are people getting more used to being tracked online? Will this be a nonissue in the future?

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